Quick start propels Falcons
As No. 11 Chesapeake-Anne Arundel and No. 5 Severna Park prepare for their respective region playoffs, Thursday’s final regular-season game served as one last tune-up before the games that really matter.
As an added incentive, the teams had a little more to play for.
With a spot in Monday’s county championship game on the line, the Falcons jumped on the Cougars for two goals in the first five minutes on their way to a 3-1 victory.
Severna Park (11-1-2) completed its unbeaten run against league opponents with two ties in county play and will play South River on Monday at Northeast High School. The Falcons and Seahawks both finished with 9-0-2 records in county play.
“It’s not going to affect our main goals, but it’s nice to be there,” Severna Park coach Rick Stimpson said. “It means you’ve done a good job preparing through the year. It’s certainly a game we’ll take seriously and it would be great to win.”
Thursday’s game figured to be a lowscoring affair where overtime wouldn’t have been a surprise. Chesapeake came in having won its last four via shutout for eight total shutouts on the year. Prior to a 2-0 loss to Archbishop Spalding earlier this week, the Falcons hadn’t given up a goal in six straight games, which included five wins and one of their two scoreless ties on the year.
Any thoughts of another scoreless tie were quickly erased when Ella Raines and Toni Fiocco-Mizer scored roughly a minute apart early in the first half. Fiocco-Mizer assisted on Raines’ goal, while Sofia Espinoza had the helper on Fiocco-Mizer’s tally. Both goals were scored in similar fashion with the attacking player earning a breakaway.
“Those first five minutes, we gave up two breakaways that we don’t typically give up,” Chesapeake coach Kevin Keeter said. “Going down 2-0, I thought we were in trouble.”
To its credit, Chesapeake didn’t panic and cut the lead in half a little more than a minute later when Brooke Hurst got free. That goal seemed to relax the Cougars, who earned a pair of corners the rest of the half and forced the Falcons to defend.
“We came back and scored that goal, but in the second half we were on our heels,” Keeter said.
Severna Park’s Lena McLaughlin was strong in the back and made a pair of solid defensive plays to preserve the Falcons’ lead going into halftime. Her reward was a goal on a header off a corner kick on an assist from Maddie Altman 12 minutes into the second half that restored the Falcons’ two-goal lead.
“She’s huge. She scored six goals for us this year, all important goals,” Stimpson said. “She’s just a rock back there. Very calm on the ball, and she can build a lot of our attacks from that position.”
The Cougars generated some late pressure, but each time Katie Byrd (four saves) was in good position for the routine save. The only other goal the Falcons gave up in a county win this year was in a 7-1 victory over Annapolis on Sept. 24.
While Severna Park prepares for the county championship game ahead of the region playoffs, Chesapeake (9-3-2) will get ready for the Class 3A South Region II playoffs, which includes Northeast, Oxon Hill, Easton, James M. Bennett and Stephen Decatur. The winner of that portion of the South Region playoffs will advance to the state quarterfinal round.
“We’re looking at maybe the second seed in the region, so we might get a home game or two,” Keeter said. “The playoff run is going to be exciting.”